Good , But It Is Overrated By Some

Excellent but underrated film

Crappy film

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

The original British version is an unpretentious example of what might be called "Brit Noir". Elmo Williams who is best known for his Oscar winning editing role on "High Noon" had a varied career in movies which included another Oscar nomination for editing "20,000 leagues under the sea" makes a workmanlike Directorial debut with this film while Beverley Michaels stars in what was her last film. A Hammer production from before the studio became synonymous with horror films. Hammer co-produced many of their films like this one with American partners in an attempt to gain access to the US market. Hence the American star and director. Obviously this only half worked as the film was extensively reworked gaining several more US cast members and a different plot before its release as "Blonde Bait" in America.In the British version the story opens with Angie, the Beverly Michaels character in jail explaining via narration and a flashback how she arrived there. She is serving seven months for an assault on her agent who tried to rape her. She has a date to meet her fiancé at a hotel on New Years Eve but will be in jail. Life in the prison and the various characters take up most of the show until Angie gets to put on a Xmas entertainment for the other inmates.She teams up with the ever reliable Thora Hird to break out. She gets to the rendezvous hotel and finds it out of business, but will the fiancé turn up? The usual business of WIP movies is handled in a polite British manner. The exterior shooting allows a nostalgic look at '50's Britain.So while not as salacious as the Women in Prison movies that were to follow in the '60's it's entertaining enough for anyone who enjoys the atmosphere of a gentler era.

I've just managed to acquire a copy of the UK version of this film which I caught on television some years ago. I was very impressed with leading lady Beverly Michaels (not the cheap blonde one might have expected from her Hugo Haas exploitation movies) but a tall classy lady with a cultured voice who even gets to sing a number at the Prison concert! Thora Hird is a standout as 'Gran' an old lag who helps Beverly escape and Joan Rice is amusing as a bigamist juggling her two husbands at visiting time. Good support also from April Olrich as a prisoner with a baby and the striking Sheila Burrell as an inmate who goes 'stir crazy'.The almost military routine of 50's prison life is well caught and it's a rare but effective directorial credit for former Oscar winning editor Elmo Williams. The American version Blonde Bait was completely re-edited with a new plot and added footage featuring Paul Cavanaugh, Jim Davis and Richard Travis. In this version Thora Hird's character is a stool pigeon who deliberately lets Michaels escape so she can lead police to her gangster boyfriend!

Beverly Michaels was discovered by Hugo Haas who then dropped her to discover "Cleo Moore" who has a few bit parts in the movie Blonde Bait as one of the prisoners. The movie is not that great but it is one of those movies that other stars were first seen and not mentioned (Cleo Moore).